Eugene D.

Alipio
ECOPE05: Economic Development Online
MR. FRANCIS A. GUMAWA

Read and answer the following questions below.

1. Discuss and assess Diamond’s evolutionary biological approach to development.

Diamond posits that characteristics of the environment physical, biological,

and social play a dominant role in sociocultural stability and change in human
societies. What he demonstrates is that these environmental characteristics largely
condition what is possible in production and population, and that these
environmental and infrastructural factors combined affect not only individual
sociocultural systems, but the world-system of societies as well. Diamond first
focuses on what he calls “ultimate factors” in explaining the vast differences in
social development among societies. These ultimate factors are all environmental in
nature: geography, soil fertility, plant and animal availability, and climate.

2. Indicate the broad outlines of world leaders in national GDP per capita during
the medieval and modern periods. How do we explain the reasons for changes in
world leadership?

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of an economy is a measure of total

production. More precisely, it is the monetary value of all goods and services
produced within a country or region in a specific time period. While the definition of
GDP is straightforward, accurately measuring it is a surprisingly difficult
undertaking. And attempts to make comparisons over time and across borders are
complicated by price, quality and currency differences. This article covers the basics
of GDP data and highlights many of the pitfalls associated with intertemporal and
spatial comparisons.

From the long-term perspective of social history, we know that economic

prosperity and lasting economic growth is a very recent achievement for humanity.
In this section we will look at this more recent time and will also study the
inequality between different regions – both in respect to the unequal levels of
prosperity today and the unequal economic starting points for leaving the poverty of
the pre-growth past.

Economic prosperity is measured as via gross domestic product (GDP) per

capita, the value of all goods and services produced by a country in one year divided
by the country’s population. Economic growth is the measure of the change of GDP
from one year to the next. This entry shows that the current experience of economic
growth is an absolute exception in the very long-run perspective of social history.

3. What are the characteristics of modern economic growth? Why was modern
economic growth largely confined to the West (Western Europe, the United States,
and Canada) before the 20th century?

A country's economic growth may be defined as a long-term rise in capacity to

supply increasingly diverse economic goods to its population, this growing capacity
based on advancing technology and the institutional and ideological adjustments
that it demands. (i) High rates of growth per capita output and population. (ii) High
rates of increase in total factor of productivity (TFP) i.e. the output per unit of all
inputs. (iii) High rates of structural transformation of the economy. (iv) High rates
of social, political and ideological transformation. Western European economies
grow much faster than eastern European economies after world war-II because,
under the pressure of Stalin, East European countries refused help from United
States. Explanation: The west European economies under the Marshall plan by
United States rebuilt their economies at a tremendous rate. Europe, much like the
United States, is a free market economy based on the movement of capital. The
economy of Europe has a GDP of around 20 trillion US dollars, and includes nearly
750 million people in about 50 different countries.